On Building an American Identity

GUATEMALA CITY, Guatemala — A weathered, eight-lane track rings the field at Estadio Mateo Flores, site of the 2011 CONCACAF U20 Championship. Far from the pitch, on a narrow strip of real estate between lane eight and the near-empty stands, six young Americans juggle a single Nike ball. As I observe from the press box that doubles as a VIP area and triples as general admission seating, United States substitutes Cody Cropper, Eder Arreola, Moises Hernandez, Omar Salgado, Sacir Hot, and Sebastien Ibeagha stay loose. It’s halftime of what will eventually be a 4-0 U.S. victory over Suriname. In an effort to protect the fragile grass, tournament officials won’t allow teams to warm up on the field until the quarterfinals. The group wears turf shoes to avoid slipping when they venture onto the worn rubber of the long-jump runway behind the benches that bisects the patch of grass they’ve annexed.

You hear a lot about the US soccer melting pot. The recipe calls for one part traditional American athleticism, a cup of the technique and possession favored by our southern neighbors, a bit of English blue-collar effort, and increasingly some German organizational ingenuity, with dashes of various other flavors borrowed from nations with better soccer pedigrees than ours. Blended together, it produces, well, something. No one really knows yet; the mixture is still simmering. Nor should we; we’re only partway through the beginning of this new era in American soccer.

Which brings us back to Guatemala. While a Latin-infused remix of Lady Gaga’s “Alejandro” blares in the background, the Red, White, and Blue hopefuls attempt an array of skills that wouldn’t be out of place in viral freestyle soccer clip. They show off for no one but themselves. Sure, they would rather be sitting in a dressing room in the bowels of the stadium preparing to play the final 45, but the group of six young players creates a joyful tableau regardless, their wide smiles matching their outsized talent.

The group is as diverse as it is happy. El Paso-born Salgado, the No. 1 pick in the 2011 Major League Super Draft, previous called Chivas de Guadalajara home but made himself a persona non grata in Mexico after accepting Thomas Rongen’s call to join the American side. Ibeagha’s father played for the University of Nigeria before bringing his young son to America where he eventually joined the Houston Dynamo Academy and enrolled in Duke University. Hot’s parents hail from Montenegro while Hernandez is of Guatemalan descent. Ipswich Town FC’s Cropper has a father who played professionally in the US after emigrating from England. These distinct stories combine to create the new reality of the American national team. Before matches, they all sing the “Star Spangled Banner” with the same intensity.

Yards from the Estadio Mateo field, they laugh with, and at, each other. But more importantly, they learn from one another. The bold ambition of Salgado’s left-footed touches encourages his MLS counterpart Hernandez to attempt to catch the ball with his off foot. The directness of Cropper’s game briefly alters the focus of the session from playful trickery to getting everyone a touch. Ibeagha’s sheer physical power contrasts with Arreola’s deft, precise flicks. It is mix and match, pick and choose, give and take; the six players combine their grab bag of skills to create a sweet mix. They take bits and pieces from each other while retaining their individuality.

Under intense lights near an empty field in Guatemala, one can see the bright future of American soccer developing in a game of keepy uppy played by half a dozen reserves in front of a chain link fence.

Noah Davis (www.noahedavis.com) covers the United States national team for MLSsoccer.com and has reported from exotic locations including Guatemala, Honduras, South Africa, and Columbus, Ohio.

Moises Orozco, the seventh sub on the 18-man gameday roster, is in the locker room preparing to start the second half in place of Amobi Okugo.

A week later, of course, varying states of despair will replace the joy as Guatemala shocks the US 2-1 in the quarterfinals, thus earning a place in the 2011 U20 World Cup—the main reason teams came to Central America in the first place.

I can count on my toes the number of times Vancouver’s striker-in-waiting touched the ball with his right foot during the week-and-a-half-long tournament. He clearly boasts immense potential, but it’s very raw. After a bad touch by one of his fellow benchwarmers sent the ball into the long-jump pit, you half expected him to hop on one foot when he went to retrieve it.

On Building an American Identity

It will be interesting to see how this combination of all things “foreign”- technique, organization, flair- combine with the good old American run-faster-jump-farther-play-stronger mentality. Jonathan Wilson’s Inverting the Pyramid does a great job of outlining the development of the footballing culture in countries like England, Argentina, Brazil, and Italy. Maybe in 30-40 years, someone will write about the nascent footballing culture in this country and outline how the U.S. integrated the various aspects listed in this article into American sporting culture to create American football culture. Should be an interesting read.

My only concern is that in my experience, MLS seems to be a league that minimizes the individuality that the article touches on. Regardless of their individual talents, players have to conform to the rigidity of MLS systems. Boot it forward, stay tight at the back, but whatever you do, make sure to stay in your position so that we don’t get exposed at the back. (Practically every MLS team plays like this.)

That kind of game minimizes the opportunities for young players to develop their unique talents. The defensive nature of the league, and US soccer in general, came about because of a general lack of quality amongst the players. (It’s always easier to maintain a defensive line than it is to create something up front.) We’ve finally gotten to a point where the talent exists, but the league still focuses on those rigid systems.

As a result, I’m not sure that the MLS if the best place for these players to develop their individual skills.

@Maxi Agreed Maxi, creativity and invention will be difficult traits to maintain especially as America has a generalised sporting culture that values the result and is infatuated with statistics. You can not put an objective value on the magic of the number 10.

However, the American sports consumer also revels in the entertainment of sport. It will be interesting to see if the sports consumers win the battle or the frightened coaches, fearing for their reputation and statistical value that American sporting culture will put on their performances.

But supporters of MLS clubs have the power to shape the American football culture by demanding a more creative and free style of football. If the demand is their it will be listened to, attacking coaches will be hired and therefore creative players will be encouraged, recruited and valued subjectively.

Yes! As American soccer fans, we are witnessing an exciting time in the development of our identity. Becoming is more compelling than being. Than the day when we can actually describe what comprises an American style.
ZD, I wait for the day when we can make similar distinctions between styles of play in the separate regions/cities of our country. Toward this end I think that the league should promote player development on the regional/local level which would mean adjusting its structure -individual teams need to be able to benefit from the development of players.

While there is an enormous potential for the US soccer, there is something lacking. In many aspects of the game (running, technical ability…), the US NT is close to the best national teams, but there is constant lack of creativity. While this can work against better teams because they bring game to you, it becomes problem against lesser team, which was evident during the last world cup. When the US NT needs to attach while the other team is oriented on counterattacks, there is a lack of any idea how to get into good scoring opportunities. I am not sure if this is because even kids from the early age play the same way in this country, or do to coaching, but I think until the US is start producing quality midfielders, there will not be a lot of success on the international stage. Even this article points to the bright future of the US soccer, but this team lost against Guatemala, so I am not sure what future will bring to this team with all this potential. This team should be beating everyone by two, three goals easily. Someone mentioned MLS before, and I have to admit that I like watching MLS (probably, it helps that I live in Seattle). Granted, the quality wise is far behind the best leagues, but there is something about parity in this league that makes it very interesting. There are not a lot of leagues where 8 to 10 teams can win the league every year. I think if MLS continue to develop like last several years, we will be witnessing very important part in the US soccer history.

@LC
Well, it’s all foreign technique isn’t it.
Not just in football, but in the whole country. The ideas of the bill of rights are borrowed ideas, as are apple pies and even the native americans were from Eurasia.
So everything is foreign, but then nothing is foreign, not for long. We’re a bit like the borg.
Hopefully in footballing sense, we resemble something like Germany in the last world cup when it’s all said and done.